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a healthy aro that size should be able to easily go without eating for a week or more.

have you tried live insects? crickets, superworms, and roaches are rarely turned down by arowanas. feeding a variety of insects that the arowana will love usually makes it super easy to get them to hit any food after awhile.

if you are set on feeding him the hikari sticks, it is also a great food, but before long it will not fill your arowana. the bigger they get, the less likely they will want sticks. my aros have all grown out of eating sticks.

have you tried fresh raw market shrimp? you can chop it up into bite sized pieces for him. getting him on market shrimp will save you a fortune in the long run and is the staple food of most large aros. if he won't accept a chunk of shrimp at first, try putting the shrimp on the end of a skewer and wiggle the shrimp a bit.

I don’t know a whole lot about arrows having never kept them. I do have marine predatory fish. When I first got my lion fish, he was used to live foods as well and did not want to east anything else. I had to get some fresh frozen foods and using a pair of tweezers, wiggle it in front of him. I had to make to food look somewhat alive in order for him to start eating it. Maybe this could worth a try ???

Last edited by Cliff; 10-15-2012 at 01:58 PM.

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Well I have bought the food sticks and dropped one in the tank (After starving him for 1 day). He took a few bites at it and spat it out.

I tried wriggling the food sticks today with tweezers and he again took a bite and kept it in his mouth and I was getting euphoric hoping he would swallow it but he again spat it out (This is after 3 days of starvation).

Any ideas I have to feed him the sticks as I don't want to try feeder fish again.
Well the FF are grown in very poor conditions and it is great to see that he hasn't got any infections so far (even after feeding them for almost 4 months).

As far as insects go I guess I have no luck, they aren't sold in any shop alive or dead, I don't want to try wild insects although there are a thousand crickets in the forest reserve near my house but they are all wild obviously and I have no idea how to catch them and they may be infected just as the feeder fish.

Not to mention the reserve is also filled with snakes and scorpions and I don't want to get bit playing cricket

So any ideas to get him eat the food sticks, I don't want to starve him for more than a week

don't give up so easily. like mentioned above, get some fresh raw market shrimp. shell them and cut them up into little strips/chunks. if he doesn't accept them at first, try wiggling them infront of him.

he should have been eating sticks long ago, you can always stuff other foods with the sticks.

work on a good source for live insects. even wildcaught insects will be better than feeder fish.